Social

In what has become a largely symbolic date, today, Chicago Cubs’ Spring camp officially opens with pitchers and catchers due to report to Mesa, Arizona by today.

By my very rough estimate (gleaned primarily from the excellent work of Tim Sheridan), the bigger name pitchers and catchers who are due to arrive today are Welington Castillo, Carlos Marmol, and, um … no one else?

Matt Garza, Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, Chris Volstad, Travis Wood, Paul Maholm, Kerry Wood, Jeff Samardzija, Geovany Soto, Jason Jaramillo, and Steve Clevenger have all been in camp for a while already, together with a ton of position players and a bunch of young pitchers vying for spots in the bullpen.

So, there isn’t a huge number of “reports” today, but it’s still an important, long-awaited day.

Actually the date has moved to being more of a deadline instead of reporting in date. I hope as time goes down this organization looks at 40-man roster and then their minor league contracts as a 12-month employ. That the Dominican facility and the new Mesa facility when completed will provide 12 month training and baseball development operations. That players receive leaves of absence for R & R but have more of an individually structured off season development system.

How this would involve the Player’s Union is curious but the strives made by players in the off season Mesa Camp cannot be marginalized.

Quintz

Somewhere a union rep just read that and laughed so hard Cheerios came out his nose.

http://www.bleachernation.com Brett

Regular or Honey Nut?

Bren

so when do the ST game start, early March?

http://www.bleachernation.com Brett

Yup. First week of March.

D17FUZZ

Ivy walls I don’t believe it can be mandatory for all that but if a MiLB player wants to make the bigs. They could certainly encourage them to participate. When the guys who do go 24/7/365 make the 40 and 25 man rosters before others, do to the progress they’ve made. It would show the others they to need to be there.

die hard

Where does Bosox and San Diego train?…keep an eye out for some of Cub players buying plane tkts for those training camps as per Selig decision…..

Matt

Padres are in Peoria, AZ. Red Sox train in Ft. Myers, FL.

Rees81

Love the Carlton clip!!!

Tim S

Thanks for the mention Brett! 70 degrees for a high temperature and lots of sunshine here in Mesa, a perfect day for pitchers and catchers to report.

ty

If you visit Mesa look up Tim Sheridan–knows Cub organization inside out–young man taking pictures around Fitch and then smooth announcer at HoHoKam for all of our S.T. games. So many of us hoped that Tim would be the new field announcer at Wrigley. One of the good guys!

http://www.bleachernation.com Brett

No problem, Tim. You do great work – looking forward to hearing your announcing skills in late March.

http://www.casualcubsfan.com hansman1982

God, how I would give anything to be at least good enough to be the 25th man on the Cubs. Here I am feeling chilly and it looks sunny and warm there in Arizona.
Also, Fresh Prince is one of the top 10 shows of all time, hands down.

Jay Anderson Jr

If I was Carlos Marmol, I would have been in camp 3 months(exageration) ago. He needs to work extra hard. Him reporting at the last minute is completely unacceptable.

http://dailybigten.com DBT

By “last minute” you mean “on time”?

http://www.bleachernation.com Brett

And keep in mind, sometimes guys coming from the Dominican can’t come early due to visa issues.

Matt

It could be worse. He could have taken a page out of a former “enhanced” slugger’s book and reported whenever he felt like gracing everyone with his presence.

JasonB

Can’t remember the last time I was so excited to see a 75 win team report to Spring Training. Work hard and get better boys!!

It really is absurd that they start spring training so early. It is a huge anachronism: yes, it was necessary when players did no conditioning except in February and March, but those days have been gone for longer than most MLBers have been alive! With 12-month conditioning programs, they really just need a few days and then a handful of exhibition games. Really, about the only “important” things that every comes out of ST anymore are injuries.

cubsin

I’m optimist enough to believe that BoSox comp won’t involve any pitcher or catcher now in camp. Surely “Larry” Bud is considerate enough of the player(s) involved not to have them report to camp in Arizona, then catch the next plane out to Florida. I’d hope that the Players’ Association would have a hissy fit if he did that.

The only remaining trade-eligible pitching prospect I’d hate to lose is Rhee. Maples and Concepcion are recent signees, and the rest of them are in camp. But I now think the prospect(s) involved will be position player(s).

Interesting on The Twitters

Beautiful BN Apparel

BN on Video

Post Categories

Site Archives

Get In Touch

Search

Disclaimer

In addition to news, Bleacher Nation publishes both rumor and opinion, as well as information reported by other sources. Information on Bleacher Nation may contain errors or inaccuracies, though we try to avoid them. Links to content and the quotation of material from other news sources are not the responsibility of Bleacher Nation. Photos used either are the property of Bleacher Nation, are used with permission, are fair use, or are believed to be in the public domain. Legitimate requests to remove copyrighted photos not in the public domain will be honored promptly. Comments by third parties are neither sponsored or endorsed by Bleacher Nation.

Bleacher Nation Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Bleacher Nation is a private media site, and it is not affiliated in any way with Major League Baseball or the Chicago Cubs. Neither MLB nor the Chicago Cubs have endorsed, supported, directed, or participated in the creation of the content at this site, or in the creation of the site itself. It's just a media site that happens to cover the Chicago Cubs.

Bleacher Nation is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.